In its review of institutions, the Higher Learning Commission seeks a culture of aspiration and continual improvement rather than satisfaction of minimum requirements. It also seeks to acknowledge the great diversity of its member institutions. For these reasons it uses the term “criteria” rather than “standards.”

The accreditation process is governed by the Criteria for Accreditation. Within the Criteria there are Criterion Statements and Core Components that ensure institutional effectiveness.

The Criteria for Accreditation

The Criteria for Accreditation are the standards of quality by which the Commission determines whether an institution merits accreditation or reaffirmation of accreditation.

Criterion One.

Mission

The institution’s mission is clear and articulated publicly; it guides the institution’s operations.

Core Components

1. A. The institution’s mission is broadly understood within the institution and guides its operations.

1. The mission statement is developed through a process suited to the nature and culture of the institution and is adopted by the governing board.

2. The institution’s academic programs, student support services, and enrollment profile are consistent with its stated mission

3. The institution’s planning and budgeting priorities align with and support the mission. (This sub-component may be addressed by reference to the response to Criterion 5.C.1.)

1. B. The mission is articulated publicly.

1. The institution clearly articulates its mission through one or more public documents, such as statements of purpose, vision, values, goals, plans, or institutional priorities.

2. The mission document or documents are current and explain the extent of the institution’s emphasis on the various aspects of its mission, such as instruction, scholarship, research, application of research, creative works, clinical service, public service, economic development, and religious or cultural purpose.

3. The mission document or documents identify the nature, scope, and intended constituents of the higher education programs and services the institution provides.

1. C. The institution understands the relationship between its mission and the diversity of society.

1. The institution addresses its role in a multicultural society.

2. The institution’s processes and activities reflect attention to human diversity as appropriate within its mission and for the constituencies it serves.

1. D. The institution’s mission demonstrates commitment to the public good.

1. Actions and decisions reflect an understanding that in its educational role the institution serves the public, not solely the institution, and thus entails a public obligation.

2. The institution’s educational responsibilities take primacy over other purposes, such as generating financial returns for investors, contributing to a related or parent organization, or supporting external interests.

3. The institution engages with its identified external constituencies and communities of interest and responds to their needs as its mission and capacity allow.

Criterion Two.

Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct

The institution acts with integrity; its conduct is ethical and responsible.

Core Components

A. The institution operates with integrity in its financial, academic, personnel, and auxiliary functions; it establishes and follows fair and ethical policies and processes for its governing board, administration, faculty, and staff.

B. The institution presents itself clearly and completely to its students and to the public with regard to its programs, requirements, faculty and staff, costs to students, control, and accreditation relationships.

C. The governing board of the institution is sufficiently autonomous to make decisions in the best interest of the institution and to assure its integrity.

The governing board’s deliberations reflect priorities to preserve and enhance the institution.

The governing board reviews and considers the reasonable and relevant interests of the institution’s internal and external constituencies during its decision-making deliberations.

The governing board preserves its independence from undue influence on the part of donors, elected officials, ownership interests, or other external parties when such influence would not be in the best interest of the institution.

The governing board delegates day-to-day management of the institution to the administration and expects the faculty to oversee academic matters.

D. The institution is committed to freedom of expression and the pursuit of truth in teaching and learning.

The institution provides effective oversight and support services to ensure the integrity of research and scholarly practice conducted by its faculty, staff, and students.

Students are offered guidance in the ethical use of information resources.

The institution has and enforces policies on academic honesty and integrity.

Criterion Three.

Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support

The institution provides high quality education, wherever and however its offerings are delivered.

Core Components

A. The institution’s degree programs are appropriate to higher education.

Courses and programs are current and require levels of performance by students appropriate to the degree or certificate awarded.

The institution articulates and differentiates learning goals for its undergraduate, graduate, post-baccalaureate, post-graduate, and certificate programs.

The institution’s program quality and learning goals are consistent across all modes of delivery and all locations (on the main campus, at additional locations, by distance delivery, as dual credit, through contractual or consortial arrangements, or any other modality).

B. The institution demonstrates that the exercise of intellectual inquiry and the acquisition, application, and integration of broad learning and skills are integral to its educational programs.

The general education program is appropriate to the mission, educational offerings, and degree levels of the institution.

The institution articulates the purposes, content, and intended learning outcomes of its undergraduate general education requirements. The program of general education is grounded in a philosophy or framework developed by the institution or adopted from an established framework. It imparts broad knowledge and intellectual concepts to students and develops skills and attitudes that the institution believes every college-educated person should possess.

Every degree program offered by the institution engages students in collecting, analyzing, and communicating information; in mastering modes of inquiry or creative work; and in developing skills adaptable to changing environments.

The education offered by the institution recognizes the human and cultural diversity of the world in which students live and work.

The faculty and students contribute to scholarship, creative work, and the discovery of knowledge to the extent appropriate to their programs and the institution’s mission.

C. The institution has the faculty and staff needed for effective, high-quality programs and student services.

The institution has sufficient numbers and continuity of faculty members to carry out both the classroom and the non-classroom roles of faculty, including oversight of the curriculum and expectations for student performance; establishment of academic credentials for instructional staff; involvement in assessment of student learning.

All instructors are appropriately credentialed, including those in dual credit, contractual, and consortial programs.

Instructors are evaluated regularly in accordance with established institutional policies and procedures.

4. The institution has processes and resources for assuring that instructors are current in their disciplines and adept in their teaching roles; it supports their professional development.

Instructors are accessible for student inquiry.

Staff members providing student support services, such as tutoring, financial aid advising, academic advising, and cocurricular activities, are appropriately qualified, trained, and supported in their professional development.

D. The institution provides support for student learning and effective teaching.

The institution provides student support services suited to the needs of its student populations.

The institution provides for learning support and preparatory instruction to address the academic needs of its students. It has a process for directing entering students to courses and programs for which the students are adequately prepared.

The institution provides academic advising suited to its programs and the needs of its students.

The institution provides to students and instructors the infrastructure and resources necessary to support effective teaching and learning (technological infrastructure, scientific laboratories, libraries, performance spaces, clinical practice sites, museum collections, as appropriate to the institution’s offerings).

The institution provides to students guidance in the effective use of research and information resources.

E. The institution fulfills the claims it makes for an enriched educational environment.

Co-curricular programs are suited to the institution’s mission and contribute to the educational experience of its students.

The institution demonstrates any claims it makes about contributions to its students’ educational experience by virtue of aspects of its mission, such as research, community engagement, service learning, religious or spiritual purpose, and economic development.

Criterion Four.

Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Improvement

The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments, and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness for student learning through processes designed to promote continuous improvement.

Core Components

A. The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs.

The institution maintains a practice of regular program reviews.

The institution evaluates all the credit that it transcripts, including what it awards for experiential learning or other forms of prior learning.

The institution has policies that assure the quality of the credit it accepts in transfer.

The institution maintains and exercises authority over the prerequisites for courses, rigor of courses, expectations for student learning, access to learning resources, and faculty qualifications for all its programs, including dual credit programs. It assures that its dual credit courses or programs for high school students are equivalent in learning outcomes and levels of achievement to its higher education curriculum.

The institution maintains specialized accreditation for its programs as appropriate to its educational purposes.

The institution evaluates the success of its graduates. The institution assures that the degree or certificate programs it represents as preparation for advanced study or employment accomplish these purposes. For all programs, the institution looks to indicators it deems appropriate to its mission, such as employment rates, admission rates to advanced degree programs, and participation rates in fellowships, internships, and special programs (e.g., Peace Corps and Americorps)

B. The institution demonstrates a commitment to educational achievement and improvement through ongoing assessment of student learning.

The institution has clearly stated goals for student learning and effective processes for assessment of student learning and achievement of learning goals.

The institution assesses achievement of the learning outcomes that it claims for its curricular and co-curricular programs.

The institution uses the information gained from assessment to improve student learning.

The institution’s processes and methodologies to assess student learning reflect good practice, including the substantial participation of faculty and other instructional staff members.

C. The institution demonstrates a commitment to educational improvement through ongoing attention to retention, persistence, and completion rates in its degree and certificate programs.

The institution has defined goals for student retention persistence, and completion that are ambitious but attainable and appropriate to its mission, student populations, and educational offerings.

The institution collects and analyzes information on student retention, persistence, and completion of its programs.

The institution uses information on student retention, persistence, and completion of programs to make improvements as warranted by the data.

The institution’s processes and methodologies for collecting and analyzing information on student retention, persistence, and completion of programs reflect good practice. (Institutions are not required to use IPEDS definitions in their determination of persistence or completion rates. Institutions are encouraged to choose measures that are suitable to their student populations, but institutions are accountable for the validity of their measures.)

Criterion Five.

Resources, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness

The institution’s resources, structures, and processes are sufficient to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational offerings, and respond to future challenges and opportunities. The institution plans for the future.

Core Components

A. The institution’s resource base supports its current educational programs and its plans for maintaining and strengthening their quality in the future.

The institution has the fiscal and human resources and physical and technological infrastructure sufficient to support its operations wherever and however programs are delivered.

The institution’s resource allocation process ensures that its educational purposes are not adversely affected by elective resource allocations to other areas or disbursement of revenue to a superordinate entity.

The goals incorporated into mission statements or elaborations of mission statements are realistic in light of the institution’s organization, resources, and opportunities.

The institution’s staff in all areas are appropriately qualified and trained.

The institution has a well-developed process in place for budgeting and for monitoring expense.

B. The institution’s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the institution to fulfill its mission.

The institution has and employs policies and procedures to engage its internal constituencies—including its governing board, administration, faculty, staff, and students—in the institution’s governance.

The governing board is knowledgeable about the institution; it provides oversight for the institution’s financial and academic policies and practices and meets its legal and fiduciary responsibilities.

The institution enables the involvement of its administration, faculty, staff, and students in setting academic requirements, policy, and processes through effective structures for contribution and collaborative effort.

C. The institution engages in systematic and integrated planning.

The institution allocates its resources in alignment with its mission and priorities.

The institution links its processes for assessment of student learning, evaluation of operations, planning, and budgeting.

The planning process encompasses the institution as a whole and considers the perspectives of internal and external constituent groups.

The institution plans on the basis of a sound understanding of its current capacity. Institutional plans anticipate the possible impact of fluctuations in the institution’s sources of revenue, such as enrollment, the economy, and state support.